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CHAPTER 7: Leadership and direction

We rated performance in this area to be good - having important strengths with some areas for improvement.

The social work division had faced a severe test of capacity and leadership in the previous 18 months. Some of the collective responsibility for previously identified weaknesses in community care and children and families services was attributable to elected members and senior officers still with the council. However, their response to this situation had been one of significant effort, leading to improvement and a return of confidence across the social work division.

In general, we found that the leadership exercised throughout the organisation - at a political, corporate, divisional and middle/first line management level - had responded positively and pragmatically. Despite the 'top down' approach adopted, staff throughout the division had responded well.

The leadership demonstrated was based upon a coherent set of values and aims, which were reasonably well understood by staff, clearly articulated by senior managers and supported by the chief executive and elected members. The profile and contribution of social work within the council had improved significantly. In addition, there were signs of recovery and renewed energy in partnership working in children and families and in some parts of community care, most notably in mental health.

We found evidence of effective political scrutiny, but there were some gaps in relation to the impact of resource constraints and eligibility for services which has resulted in delay in service delivery to some vulnerable people in the community.

The positive role of the chief social work officer was well established - in part due to a single social work division, headed up by an acting director who also carried out the responsibilities of the role.

Vision, values and aims

Promotion of vision and values

The vision of the social work division reflected that of the community planning partnership and council as a whole. This looked forward to staff being at the centre of partnership working, setting out to improve ' …personal safety, health, well-being and social inclusion for the more vulnerable and disadvantaged people of Midlothian'.

Underpinning this vision, there were a number of aims and value statements, listed for the first time in the latest social work divisional plan. These included:

• ' Giving clear and easy to understand information to people about what we can and can't do;
• Working in a person centred way to help people have as much choice and control as possible over their lives;
• Treating everyone as equals, with respect and valuing people that are different;
• Getting value for money from services we provide and pay for; and
• Providing services that listen to what people say, are open to new ideas and welcome challenge' (Social Work Divisional Plan, 2008-11).

As reported earlier, our survey of Midlothian social work staff revealed only 10% disagreeing that there was a clear vision for social work; 54% in agreement (these figures comparable with all but two of the 21 authorities inspected to date). The results also indicated that managers were more positive in their responses than front line staff - something that became apparent in our focus groups. The view was often expressed to us that, due to the pace of change over the preceding 18 months, a significant proportion of staff had been understandably preoccupied with:

• learning to work within a new structure;
• (often) with new managers and team members; and
• applying new systems, processes and procedures.

As a result, the question as to why these changes had occurred, and an understanding and ownership of the underpinning vision and values, were not always at the forefront of staff's thinking. This was acknowledged by managers.

Cross cutting approach within the council

We found coherent links between plans at community planning, corporate and social work division levels. Relevant objectives in Midlothian Moving Forward³³ - reducing health inequalities, improving community care, taking steps to ensure safer communities and tackling disadvantage and providing learning opportunities - were reflected at divisional and service levels. Social work plans identified a set of objectives that were explicitly linked to corporate priorities, and reflected areas for improvement identified from both internal self evaluation and external scrutiny.

There was further evidence of the social work contribution to the corporate and community planning agendas. The social work division had assisted in the preparation of the first draft of the Midlothian single outcome agreement - part of the national performance framework, as agreed by the Scottish Government and local authorities. The acting director of social work had, both by his own account and that of the chief executive, taken a leading role in work relating to three of the 15 national outcomes, developing corresponding local outcomes, relevant indicators, targets and timescales.

According to senior managers within the council that we spoke to, there had been a marked improvement both in working relationships with social work colleagues, as well as an upturn in the contribution of the social work division to the corporate agenda. For example:

• A senior housing manager spoke positively about the head of children and families services taking the initiative in improving links between housing and social work at a senior level. This had contributed significantly to the planning of new provision to meet the housing needs of care leavers. We commented further in Chapter 6.
• There was evidence of a more measured and systematic approach to emergency planning - evident in the comments of council staff with responsibility for this important corporate activity.

Corporate parenting was at an early stage of development in Midlothian but social work managers were demonstrating leadership in this area. A positive start had been made in the development of a corporate parenting strategy, published in February 2008. This provided a helpful guide to what was meant by corporate parenting, before going on to set out the respective roles and responsibilities of elected members and officers across the council and beyond. However, our discussion with a range of council staff highlighted that there was still some way to go in the concept being fully incorporated into the work of all relevant council divisions - something that the chief executive, acting director and senior managers acknowledged. Their stated intention was to build on the foundation that the recently approved strategy offered.

We noted other examples of strong leadership in the social work division in securing corporate approaches on commissioning and contracting and the proposed framework i system.

Leadership of people

Positive leadership culture

We found widespread evidence that the impact of the report into services to protect children - both the team's verbal feedback to senior staff in November 2006 as well as publication of the report in February 2007 - had been profound. Additional deficits and areas for improvement across the social work division, found in the March 2007 SWIA file scrutiny, added to an urgent improvement agenda across the social work division - in community care as well as children and families services. We consider that at least some of the collective responsibility for these and other weaknesses revealed around this time was attributable to senior officers and elected members - some of whom were still with the council.

Judging by subsequent reported events, there was evidence that the acting director and senior managers in the social work division, supported by the chief executive and elected members, had taken an effective lead during this critical period. Furthermore, we found front line staff to be equally positive about the leadership displayed by first line and middle managers, although some concerns about the pace of change were frequently expressed to us.

Involvement of staff

The sense of coming out of an extremely challenging period had made its mark on the style of management - both actual and perceived. A number of consistent themes emerged from our focus groups with front line staff, trade union representatives and first line managers, largely supported by our survey findings:

• Services had generally improved in the previous 18 months;
• Management of the social work division had significantly improved - both in terms of policy, procedure, and a willingness on the part of the acting director and heads of service to be much more visible and approachable to staff; and
• Change had been largely 'top-down' in nature, with relatively little opportunity for staff to participate in the formulation of new ways of working.

Whilst this latter point could be taken as being mainly critical in nature, we found an acceptance of this approach on the part of many staff we met. Given the difficulties that the division had faced over this period, staff generally felt that the response from senior managers was reasonable and necessary. At the same time, the consistent view we heard was that, having emerged from this difficult period, it was now time to take stock and to move forward in a more participative and inclusive way.

Senior managers we spoke to were firmly of the view that measures taken, including the introduction of a number of changes in a short space of time, had been the most effective means of managing the division at a time of great difficulty. At the same time, there was an acceptance that, in order to sustain improvement and facilitate further gains, there was a need to change the perception of staff to one where they felt they were being listened to and involved.

Leadership of change and improvement

Political leadership and capacity

In 2000, Midlothian Council had introduced an executive model of political administration. This included a cabinet of elected members from the majority political group overseen by a number of scrutiny, statutory and regulatory bodies. The cabinet consisted of seven portfolio holders, including one for social work and health.

Both the chief executive and senior elected members were positive in their views about the cabinet system in Midlothian, pointing to more timely decision making as a result of fortnightly meetings. However, this approach to political scrutiny had not revealed the serious deficiencies apparent in children and families services. Highlighting this, the Best Value Audit ³⁴ concluded that, whilst the council's political structures provided a sound basis for elected members to scrutinise performance, scrutiny remained ineffective in some cases.

Under these arrangements, the cabinet member for social work and health was expected to scrutinise the work of the division. Underpinning this, the council's performance review committee ( PRC) provided an opportunity for all non-cabinet elected members to monitor improvement and decisions taken at cabinet. We attended a meeting of a sub-committee of the PRC, established specifically to address weaknesses identified as a result of the child protection inspection.

The cabinet member for social work and health regularly attended social work divisional management team meetings and other key strategic meetings, in order to be more involved in and informed about social work issues. The elected member concerned was very positive about this way of enhancing his understanding of the social work portfolio, regarding it as much more efficient and effective than, for example, individual briefing meetings with the acting director of social work. Whilst we considered this to be an unusual arrangement, the chief executive saw it as a logical consequence of the cabinet system: providing the cabinet member with a better understanding of the functions and issues facing the division. This positive view was equally matched by all the senior social work managers we spoke to. They considered the contribution of the elected member to be helpful and constructive, and in no way constraining in carrying out their role.

We found no evidence that the boundaries between officer and member accountability had been blurred or compromised, and observed positive working relationships between the cabinet member and senior social work managers. Nevertheless, we consider constant vigilance to be necessary in maintaining proper roles and boundaries under such arrangements.

From direct observation of the PRC sub committee, as well as our meetings with the leader of the council and cabinet member, it was evident that senior elected members were committed to the improvement of social work services, and the means of political scrutiny were in place. This was particularly significant, given past failure to detect significant failings in children and families services, as reported.

Political decision making

Scrutiny included an option within the council to 'call in' any cabinet decision for reconsideration if necessary. Elected members had rarely exercised this option in recent years. One of two recent occasions had been in relation to eligibility criteria for community care service users and children with disabilities. The outcome of this was not to apply the eligibility criteria retrospectively and to phase them in over a period of at least two years, thereby protecting existing care packages to people considered to have lower priority need. As reported earlier in this report, the consequence of this had been that a significant number of service users assessed as having critical or substantial levels of need were not in receipt of the required service.

In addition, it was unclear whether elected members were fully aware of the implications of the implementation of the home care review, in terms of disruption to service users and a loss of capacity resulting from the requirement that the implementation should be cost neutral.

We concluded that this position had contributed to avoidable risk to significant numbers of vulnerable people, and seriously undermined the council's stated aims of moving towards more personalised and efficient services. We have made a recommendation about this in Chapter 3.

Leadership of change

As stated throughout this report, there was ample evidence of improvement in service delivery. This extended to a range of partnership arrangements. As reported in Chapter 6, the social work division was involved in joint planning systems across a comprehensive number of service areas. In interviews with colleagues from partner organisations, we heard a consistent message of renewed engagement, energy and improvement on the part of social work. However, from our perspective, this was more evident in some service areas than others. For example, whilst there had been significant gains in relation to child protection and mental health, there was still some way to go in relation to substance misuse, learning disability and children with disabilities - although there were encouraging signs here also. Positive signs in relation to services to older people and people with dementia, however, were less evident. Permanency planning for looked after and accommodated children also required significant improvement.

Working relationships at a senior level appeared to be generally positive. A recent decision by NHS Lothian to merge the community health partnership ( CHP) management of East Lothian and Midlothian into a single structure had caused some initial surprise and concern within the council, mainly in relation to the capacity of CHP managers to operate across two local authority areas. However, concern had largely been replaced by positive recognition of a range of potential partnership opportunities across local authority boundaries, with the CHP as a common element.

The role of chief social work officer

As a qualified social worker, the acting director of social work held the responsibilities of chief social work officer ( CSWO). He was well supported in this role by the chief executive, who stated an appreciation of the importance of the CSWO, in accordance with Changing Lives ³⁵. The acting director had submitted a report to cabinet as recently as February 2008 on the role of the CSWO, providing an opportunity for the council to review the role and re-emphasise its importance in achieving service quality and positive outcomes for service users.

In order to assist in the carrying out of his responsibilities, there was a separate CSWO risk register. The purpose of this was to evaluate the most crucial risks within the social work division, relevant to the CSWO role.

We heard consistently positive accounts from a wide range of sources about the impact of the acting director since his appointment in March 2007. Front line staff commented on a renewed clarity of purpose. The contribution of the social work management team as a whole also attracted positive comment from front line staff and middle/front line managers, in terms of visibility and approachability. Stakeholders were equally positive. We observed the acting director chairing the adult protection committee. Assisted by the lead adult protection officer, we considered the social work leadership of this important group to be energetic, ambitious, well informed and focused on service users.

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